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Forces loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Tuesday launched a violent attack on the city of Masaya, one of the strongest oppositions to the government since protests against the movement began three months ago. .
With some forty trucks and heavily armed vehicles, riot and paramilitary police entered the city on Tuesday, southeast of the capital, Managua, from several points.
and independent groups claim that government forces took control
According to the Nicaraguan Association of Human Rights (Anpdh), at least four people died during the Attack: three civilians and a policeman.
The violent offensive took place specifically on the indigenous district of Monimbó, the epicenter of the civil uprising against the Ortega government that began last April.
Since the crisis broke out, about 300 people have lost their lives, most of them civilians, according to Anpdh estimates.
Monimbó was the key in the social position against Orte ga that began in April | GETTY IMAGES
The operation takes place only a few days after the siege of a church in Managua filled with university students by forces loyal to the president. The students took refuge in the temple when they attacked the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (Unan) to expel them.
At least two young people perished in this siege, according to BBC Mundo's collaborator Ismael López, who ended up trapped in the temple next to the protesters.
"At all costs"
The operation in Masaya began early Tuesday morning and lasted more than seven hours, according to the agency EFE ].
"The order of our president and vice president is to clean the streets, these dams at the national level, and this demand of the population of Monimbó, which is our Monimbó, and our Masaya, we will go there comply at all costs! ", explained the head of the police delegation in Masaya, Ramón Avellán.
The government assures that barricades damage business and disrupt citizens' lives. [19659014] RT: The Masaya Police Chief admits that Tuesday's armed attack is a direct order from Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. He warned that they will "cleanse" Monimbó at "all costs" >> https://t.co/uL9PZgSOm1 #SOSMasaya #SOSNicaragua pic.twitter.com/IiM9WYhf1f [19659015] – La Prensa Nicaragua (@laprensa) 17 July 2018
The official website El 19 Digital titled on its website "Monimbó, Masaya Territorio Liberado" and assured that the city "It shows already streets liberated from roadblocks where people can move freely without fear of being assaulted, killed or kidnapped. "
According to the agency EFE supporters of Ortega celebrated the attack and thanked the police Nicaragua
Analysis of Arturo Wallace
] BBC special envoy to Nicaragua
The end of the Monimbó barricades was doubly important to the government because of the symbolic value of this district. Originally from Masaya, historically a Sandinismo ba
They had been bred during the early days of the protest and were virtually the only ones to have resisted the "cleaning operation" ordered a few weeks ago by President Ortega .
It is said that the president He was determined to regain control of most streets before July 19, when the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution will be commemorated.
And the approximately 1,000 heavily armed soldiers who are estimated to have been used to "recover" Masaya confirm
The actual importance of this "victory" remains to be seen
Again, the action of the police and groups of armed Sandinista sympathizers in charge of "cleaning operation" have been heavily criticized. by the human rights organizations and it has incited the international community to fix eyes on Nicaragua.
And the end of the barricades does not mean the end of the rotestas, that this Wednesday will be of three months; if perhaps the beginning of a new stage, although the result remains uncertain.
Alvaro Leiva, secretary of Anpdh, told the agency AFP that forces that support Ortega took control of the city after several hours of fighting and "l & rsquo; Excessive use of force ".
According to this organization, the locality remains surrounded by the "combined forces" of the government.
"Fell Masaya, everything is quiet, the children had to leave the trenches and escape, their weapons were too heavy," she said to EFE member of the Masaya movement of April 19.
Criticism grows
The last government offensive comes after three months of strong protests across the country and increasing international criticism of the actions of the Ortega government.
crisis began on April 18 with a wave of protests as failed social security reforms and became a civil uprising against the president.
Protesters call for departure from Ortega and justice for those killed in the context of these demonstrations, mainly due to the disproportionate use of force by state security forces and paramilitary groups, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Human Rights (IACHR)
BBC video capture ]
An IACHR investigation into the protests recorded numerous allegations of unlawful and arbitrary detention, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; censorship and attacks on the press; and other forms of intimidation.
The Nicaraguan Government denies any responsibility for the acts of violence and insists that the violence is the result of a "coup d'etat" strategy by some sectors of the opposition
. CEN), the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, various nations like the United States and even the President's brother, retired General Humberto Saavedra, have repeatedly asked to Ortega to resolve the situation
But the president has not shown signs of doing so and the crisis continues.
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